Binays ‘demonized’ by three senators

SENATOR Joseph Victor “JV” Ejercito on Sunday said ongoing Senate blue ribbon sub-committee hearings on Vice President Jejomar Binay’s alleged hidden wealth have turned out to be an attempt to demonize the Binay family.

Ejercito cited the dragging of the name of the Vice President’s youngest daughter into the picture.

He and the rest of the members of the Senate minority bloc have decided not to attend the sub-committee hearings since last September, claiming that their attendance in the proceedings would only give credibility to the inquiry.

The senator has been calling on his colleagues in the sub-committee not to use the proceedings for political purposes and just let the proper constitutional bodies such as the Office of the Ombudsman to look into the matter.

“This déjà vu, I’ve already seen this already. My family went through the same experience. They are demonizing the Vice President and his family so that the people will hate them,” Ejercito said, referring to what the Estradas went through in the hands of their political enemies in the past.

The senator is a son of former President and now Manila Mayor Joseph “Erap” Estrada.

The Senate blue ribbon sub-committee during its 10th hearing last week on the allegations against the Vice President presented several pictures grabbed from the Instagram posts of Binay’s youngest daughter while visiting an agricultural estate in Rosario, Batangas, that supposed witnesses say belongs to the Vice President.

It was Senate Majority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano who made the presentation and considered the photos as proof that the Binays are the true owner of the property.

Businessman Antonio Tiu, in his testimony before and documents presented to the sub-committee, said he is the owner of the estate.

Senator Aquilino Pimentel 3rd, sub-committee chairman, also on Sunday admitted in a radio interview over dzBB that the instagram photos could not be considered as evidence.

Senator Antonio Trillanes 4th rounds up the sub-committee’s main probers.

The Vice President is unlikely to attend the November 6 hearing of Senate blue ribbon mother committee in order for Binay to clear his name.

Lawyer JV Bautista, United Nationalist Alliance secretary-general, said Binay might not attend the hearing because he does not see Sen. Teofisto Guingona 3rd as one having control of even the sub-committee.

3 Comments

Its so strange how he wont attend & the longer it goes on the more guilty he looks. Im sure myself in this instance there isnt smoke without fire. Having this bank secrecy law helps to hide illgotten wealth from the eyes of everyone. Get rid of it & corruption will be easier to see & attack.